Just last week i received a 8 pieces of 072 fast track curved sections,at first i didn't pay any attention to the Finish on them i just layed them on the floor to see how they would work out with what i wanted to do,however today i was playing around some more when i noticed tiny black spots on the rails,so i tried to clean them off with lionel track cleaner & they would not come off,next i tried using a scotch brite pad the blue one with lionel track cleaner & still they would not come off,i did search on the forum & found out that at one time there was a problem with a batch of fast track & it was about these black spots & that the track may be defective. Can anyone shed some light on this particular problem,& what do you think should be done about it? In all fairness to the well known store that i bought them from i have not called them yet,i will do that tomorrow & see how they respond,i don't need a refund i could use some 060 & 048 curved pieces in exchange.I would not take a chance & use these 072 pieces & even if they were to offer to exchange these for 8 different 072 pieces i would be afraid that they were from the same batch & be defective also. This is the first time i have purchased anything from them & iwould like to continue to do business with them. All comments welcomed.
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I would run a train on those track pieces first. The track may work just fine.
Define defective.
My fastrack does that as well. I use the green scotch brite pad and then i wipe it down with WD40 and when i setup my track i wipe it down with alcohol then when i take it up i wipe back down with WD40. The WD40 keeps the black spots from coming back.
I've had that happen to a few pieces as well. A scotch brite pad seems to help, but it never totally went away. My trains run fine on it wth no issues for TMCC or DCS.
Bob
Flash,that would be something i could do,but i was more concerned about the long term effect that possibly the track could rust,or not conduct power very well,but i will try your suggestion & see how the trains run.
ADCX ROB,I don't know anything about the problem that fast track had in the past ,so i really can't really give a good definition of defective except that i was concerned that the track might rust i am probably getting ahead of myself ,so i will do as flash had suggested & run some trains on the track to see if there are any problems. I was waiting to see if someone knew what the long term effect if any was with these spots,i think for now i will hold onto them & see how they work.
I don't understand why you say you don't need a refund.Are you saying you want to buy defective merchandise and then want to go back?
It may be a problem with the manufacturing plating process. These tracks are expensive and for me, I'd want them perfect. If it was me, I would ask the LHS to order me a new set or give me a store credit, since you want to give them the business, I think that would be more than fair to you and to your LHS...Good luck.
I had several sections of FasTrack that also displayed those dark areas/spots, and even though the dark spots do not seem to affect operation, they do affect appearance (at least as far as I am concerned). I elected not to use them on my layout, which didn't really pose a significant problem since I already have more track than I have railroad.
I would recommend returning the "spotted" sections to your dealer and get replacements.